6 Desk Accessories You Needed Like, Yesterday

Decor

As we think about easy ways to refresh our homes without diving into a complete decor overhaul, a simple swap of accessories immediately comes to mind! One of our favorite rooms in the home is the office. It’s a personal space for the entrepreneur in the house to spread their wings. It’s also the place that is usually piled with messy paperwork, a couple of cups of old coffee and frankly, just always covered in “un-fun” stuff. Oh, but how that little corner of the world can be flipped upside down with a few gorgeous, streamlined desk accessories. As the glimmer of a new season begins to peek around the corner, we can’t help but start thinking about getting back down to business. Good looking business of course!

Get Your Shop On:

> 1. Trash Bin
> 2. Tape Dispenser
> 3. Notepads
> 4. Elastic Ball
> 5. Lamp
> 6. Scissors

We, like you, need all of these desktop pretties asap. We can see it now…a clean desk! What a life that would be…

image via Coco Lapine Design

Final Loft Reveal: {My New Office!}

Decor

In rearranging our loft to make way for little Carter, I may have given up the Apartment 34 Studio space, but I definitely still needed somewhere to work! We also still needed a spot for guests to stay. And I dreamt about how nice it would be to have a little quiet retreat to escape to…So to the upstairs I went. What was once our bedroom has now been transformed from this….

To THIS!

The first thing I did after our bed headed downstairs was paint the walls white! The lofted room only has 7ft ceilings so I needed to do something to make the space feel as expansive as possible. I’ve been a sucker for Benjamin Moore White 01 paint for quite some time. It’s the perfect soft white. It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for you!

While the upstairs feels much bigger now, actual square footage is still very limited so I had to hunt out as many space-saving solutions as I could. The first score was my adorable mid-century inspired desk. It’s just big enough to hold my computer and that’s all I really need. Sure, I loved all my gorgeous office accessories, but really, when is the last time you used a stapler – even if it is an acrylic one?!

I also wanted to create a little reading nook for the few spare minutes of relaxation I can grab between naps, so a set of picture rail shelves now serve as my magazine rack + place to display personal photos. I love how I can swap out titles to completely change the look. Two black and white botanic art prints from Buddy Editions, framed beautifully by Simply Framed add a nice contrast to the neutral color palette. They really ground the space. Carter also likes to come up and hang out with mama while she may or may not be catching up on email!

All in all, I’m really pleased with how this room turned out. It’s mult-functional, it maximizes every available square inch and just feels inviting. Now the husband often has to go looking for me because I’m tucked away up here!

If you missed the rest of the loft makeover, check it out right HERE.

home office resources: west elm floor lamp // west elm mid-century mini desk // gold speckled cowhide rug // american leather sleeper sofa // jessie balck throw pillows // simply framed custom frames // buddy edition art prints // gap bag as basket // pottery barn kids activity gym // heath ceramics bud vase // diptyque candle

original photography for apartment 34 by aubrie pick

How To Incorporate a Home Office into Your Living Room

Decor

In case you’ve been living under a giant pile of work lately {raise hands!} and happened to miss it, our uber-talented Editorial Director, Bianca, was just featured in the latest issue of Rue Magazine! And not just any ole’ issue, it’s the Anniversary Issue – the biggest of the year! I couldn’t be more excited to show you some snaps of her crazy hot home office space — it’s just the right amount of moody glamour and much-needed function; proof positive that you don’t even need a “real office” to achieve a similar look. Bianca’s going to take it away! Just own the envy and take notes! – Erin

Not everyone has the luxury of having a dedicated room for an office, right? Myself included. My office is actually my living room and admittedly, it was tricky trying to figure out how much “office” to incorporate into the space I veg out the most. You may remember the previous layout of the room here. The “office” was tucked away in a corner on purpose. I didn’t want it to be a focal point because really, who wants to stare at their desk more than they have to??

It worked for a while, but it really wasn’t ideal for me being shoved in front of a closet. So I moved the desk against my main gallery wall and boom, the room changed- for the better! The white desk popped off the dark wall and by clearing the paperwork, leaning some artwork and placing pretty objects on my desk, it camouflaged it enough- making it a highlight of the space without taking away from the purpose of the room.

Objects and magazines are always rotating on the surfaces of things. My coffee table already doesn’t look like this- in fact, a lot of things are different! I’m always picking up something new to add to my home. I think it’s so necessary for my sanity- to change things around. It keeps things from getting stale. I just bought this crystal candle that I’m obsessed with, this decor book called The Chamber of Curiosity and this throw– like I need ANOTHER one!

One of my favorite areas of the room is the bar area. It sits atop a dresser that holds dvd’s and computer cables. I added drawer pulls from West Elm to make it look a little more fancy! It’s a real mix of high and low. I’ve found all of my barware at thrift stores and painted the framed piece myself. Everything sits pretty next to my favorite pair of Regina Andrew alabaster lamps- my ultimate splurge! And just in case you were wondering, here are the most common questions that I get regarding my space:

> Dark paint color? Benjamin Moore Nightfall, 3 coats

> Art piece above my sofa? I painted it! Email me for commission prices and look out for prints coming soon!

> Are the black chairs velvet? Linen? They’re wool and pinstripe and ever-ee-thing!!

Be sure to read the full story in Rue’s Anniversary Issue here and another behind-the-scenes interview on what my day really looks like – including my fave music, artists, must-haves and go-to websites- here.

original photography for Rue Magazine by Aubrie Pick

Put A Prop On It: {Office Styling Revealed!}

Business of blogging

They say your home is the museum of your life. I’m first to admit I can take that to a bit of an extreme. I’ve just always loved decorative objects. I find them on trips, the flea market, random boutiques. They always remind of the time and place where I found them. Thankfully, with all the styling we do around here these days, my accessories collection now comes in very handy! We decided to kill two birds with one stone with the Apartment 34 office redesign: store all our props and use them for our own decor!

When it comes to styling office shelves – especially when you’re working with a lot of accessories, the key is to keep things from getting totally overwhelming. In our case, there was editing involved {although you might not be able to tell!}. In order to avoid a hot mess, we styled the bookcases with a cohesive neutral color palette in mind: white, gray, creams and tans. A few pops of green, blue and bronze keep it from feeling too monotonous. Anything that didn’t work in our color scheme got stored out of sight.

Another shelf styling rule of thumb is to create vignettes in threes. Each shelf got its own mini-threesome {or two!}. We grouped bowls, candles, vases and the like. Be sure to always vary the heights of your accessories to create balance!

Stacks of books {and my never ending collection of Vogues!} also helped break up horizontal lines and offer additional texture. There’s something about books that immediately warms up a space.

We also incorporated a variety of our glass objects {vases, carafes & even a selection of my favorite wine bottles} to keep the shelves from feeling visually heavy. Adding in plants {we picked a rubber leaf and snake plant} injected the entire space with life {duh} but I also love their different shapes and textures.

We broke up the all the business we’ve got going on at our coworking desk by creating a distinct seating area on the opposite side of the room. It’s a lovely spot for group brainstorming sessions, magazine browsing and general decompression from screen time! I mixed a traditional sofa with more modern chairs and sweet white enamel side table. I used the art to inject the area with color.

Finally, you may remember our office supply closet DIY from last year. Well, now we get to fully enjoy it because we removed the supply closet doors! I was pleasantly surprised how much it opened up the room. Now all we see is all that great bright white space, styled desk supplies {yes you can be picky about your office supplies and it DOES make a difference.}

Even with all our details proudly on display the office feels more open, more spacious and really inviting. By keeping our edit tight and the floor plan spread out we keep the room feeling overtaken by stuff. Now when we’re working on our next shoot everything we need is right at our fingertips!

original photography for apartment 34 by Aubrie Pick

Office Makeover Reveal: {Design Is In The Details}

Decor

Having the office done is Such. A. Relief. From day one, I set out to create a space that would really help get the team’s creative juices flowing. I wanted ideas to literally bounce off the white walls. But trying to stay minimal can be a bit tricky – design is very much in the details when every piece counts. And when you’re working on a budget making the perfect choices definitely took more time than expected!

But as promised, we’re breaking down some of those details today {and over the next couple of weeks!}, first focusing on the upgrades to the walls. We found affordable, simple and most importantly fun ways to really make the space feel brand new!

We spend the vast majority of our time glued to screens, so I really wanted to capture wall space for old school inspiration. I used to have boxes and boxes of magazine tears, people – that I moved cross country…twice! As we worked on the redesign, we always kept our eyes peeled for new and interesting ways to display pieces of tangible, physical inspiration. That hunt became the source for our most economical DIY yet! Can you guess what it was??

We’d been seeing metal grates pop up all over our fave Scandinavian blogs, so we decided to try and make one ourselves! A simple trip to the hardware store yielded the perfect large scale wire grating for $7! To take it a little beyond junk yard chic, we simply laid it down on some cardboard and spray painted it white. Now it simply hangs from picture hooks. We call it our modern pin board and we’re all obsessed.

The grate is the perfect solution for an awkward wall space that needs some visual interest {it hangs on this weird blank spot right before you enter the bathroom!}. It adds texture and interest all on its own, but we use it to hang styling ideas for upcoming shoots, odd knick knacks and our favorite art for a seriously cool 3-D statement!

Since half of the team is facing a wall when sitting at our new co-working desk {the now iconic Strut Table from Blu Dot, btw!}, we needed something inspiring to look at there too. Instead of doing a typical gallery wall, we loved the idea of creating a rotating inspiration shelf. With acrylic clipboards from Muji {they proved more economical than these gorgeous ones from Russel & Hazel!} and a simple picture rail, we have a chic and quickly interchangeable moodboard to display our most recent magazine musings!

In our book, no office is complete without a bar and we wanted ours to be a highlight of the space! We started out by creating a black statement wall {painted with Flat Silhouette by Martha Stewart Living for The Home Depot}. Keeping with the minimal style, we floated a clean-lined Ikea console with white lacquer doors and Ikea-hacked it with a customized black surface {aka $10 black contact paper purchased on Amazon!} Then we brought in one major piece of artwork. This is an especially meaningful piece, as we commissioned our very own Editorial Director to make it! Bianca recently discovered this stunning hidden talent {you may remember the piece she did in her own living room here!} and her gorgeous abstract ink on canvas really brought the wall to life {inquire about your own piece here!}.

When it came to lighting, we didn’t have the luxury of installing a “major moment” over our new desk due to a concrete ceiling, so we figured out how to work with the tracking lighting that was already there. We used a simple custom brass pendant {made by studioPGRB!} to make a stunning, singular statement. We also added a monochromatic black wall sconce by OneFortyThree to instantly upgrade our lighting game!

Finally, we created a mini-gallery moment in our “creativity corner.” Still wanting to keep things as uncluttered as possible, we focused on four art pieces all with a similar color palette and gold frames. The two new ones are original works by fave artist Jennifer Ament and the last little detail is simply a hand-painted watercolor card that we slapped up, unframed, but it totally rounded out the moment. The fresh combo made us fall in love with our favorite art piece from the original design all over again – our Life Magazine image of Vegas showgirls playing chess backstage! J’adore.

That’s detail on just a few of our favorite mini moments around the office. We hope you can see how the simplest changes can have the biggest impact on a room. Next week we’ll break down the creativity corner, the supply closet {remember our most popular DIY to date!} and what’s on our prop shelves! Stay tuned.

__________________________________________________________________________

SHOP the Office Makeover Sources

> Strut Table, Blu Dot

> Slope Chairs, Dot & Bo

> Black & White Rug, Lulu & Georgia

> Pendant light, studioPGRB

> Wall sconce, OneFortyThree

> Throw pillows, Designer Fluff

> Dipped natural wood tray, The Vintage Vogue

original photography for apartment 34 by Aubrie Pick // moodboard image 1 via Lotta Agaton // 2 via Design Sponge // 3 via Style At Home // 4 via Trendenser // 5 via Stylizimo // 6 via Rebecca Centren

It’s Here: The Apartment 34 Office Reveal!

Decor

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Wedding Week to finally reveal our labor of love: our new and much improved, Apartment 34 team office!

We said we’d have the office makeover done in a month, but like all good design projects, it ended up taking four! Thankfully it’s here now and it’s pretty awesome {if we do say so ourselves!}. We’re SO excited to finally be able to invite you in for a tour.

The space needed to be completely refreshed in order for our growing team to get down to business. This included an all new layout complete with a jumbo work station as well as a “creativity charging corner” for thumbing through computer-free inspiration {SO necessary!}. A dramatic black accent wall, a custom brass pendant and spots on the walls for impromptu moodboards are just a few of our favorite details!!

You’ll want to stay tuned as we break down fresh ideas that you can easily replicate in your own space next week. We plan to dive into all of the ins, outs, sources and how-to’s. If there’s anything you spy that you want us to be sure and cover, just leave a comment with your request!

Until then, you can find even more pics of the office on VSCO Journal! We were thrilled to share insights from our design process and a bit more detail about the crazy world of running a blog with the VSCO team. The interview, with more of our makeover reveal and some never seen “befores,” is HERE. And a very special thanks to VSCO for the feature and all the AH-mazing products you produce that help make our photos so much prettier!!

Curious about what the Apartment 34 office looked like before? You can see last year’s studio tour HERE and my tips for making simple updates to your space on Refinery 29 HERE! I’m also be pinning to a moodboard inspired by our redesign with Blu Dot for the next two weeks HERE.

original photography for apartment 34 by Aubrie Pick

My Favorite Baubles + Office Makeover Sneakpeek!

Fashion

While I love the idea of putting together head turning outfits on a daily basis, the get-myself-out-the-door-in-10-minutes way of life doesn’t always make room for putting together complicated looks.

I don’t know if it’s the fact that Summer is around the corner, but stocking my closet with cool basics just feels so…right…right now {as we discussed earlier this week right here}. These days I find myself turning to a fool-proof uniform: a crisp button down, torn jeans {yes I jumped on the bandwagon}, topped with a leather jacket when I head out. Weekdays call for heels and weekends for sneakers {but I tend to go barefoot when we’re in the office!}. I keep the look interesting day to day by swapping out my accessories! That’s why I was so excited to be asked to be one of five bloggers to take over BaubleBar to showcase our favorite pieces from their spring collection. Having a collection of trendy pieces is the perfect way to update a wardrobe built on basics. I gladly took on the “challenge!”

This look epitomizes everything I’m loving these days; boyfriend jeans, tees and slip-ons. But do check out my BaubleBar wishlist on Shopstyle – even a romper for Greece made the cut, along with my favorite fashion jewelry pieces of course!

get the look: Mark and Graham Oxford // Zara denim // Crystal Nail Ring // Round Crystal Pendant // Gold Double Cage Ring // Willow Infinity Ring

In my look above I’m also rocking the Buried Bauble of the day. Don’t know what that is? BaubleBar offers Buried Baubles – for just $10! Today only you can find my Buried Bauble hidden in my ShopsStyle collection! Here’s a little hint to help you uncover it: This type of DISC will never go out of style.

You actually have the chance to snag a Buried Bauble every day this week! Be sure to head back to the site everyday to add to your accessories arsenal without breaking the bank. While you’re there, don’t forget to enter the BaubleBar and French Connection Sweepstakes (4/28-5/11) for a chance to win a prize valued at $5,000!

original photography for apartment 34 by Ashley Batz // styling by Apartment 34

This post is in partnership with ShopStyle. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting posts that keep Apartment 34’s doors open.

Office Makeover: {Ditching the Desk!}

Decor

Progress on the office makeover continues {albeit slowly!}. Things are finally falling into place though so we thought it was time for another progress update.

One piece we had to say goodbye to was my lovely desk. Now, I’m not actually ditching this prized possession. The beautiful petrified wood piece is sticking around, it’s just physically leaving the office. There are no ways around the fact that a single desk is just not big enough for four people to sit at and work efficiently. What we need is something communal, spacious and designed to help us all get down to business!

get your shop on: 1 // 2 // 3

Truthfully, we’ve already picked one of these beauties and it’s soon to be revealed with the rest of the office {woot!}, but all three of these tables are great options if you’re looking for the same modern, communal work space, or if you’re just looking to spread out your personal work station.

So we figured we could play a game {because we love games!}. Which desk do you think made the cut? Is it the mid-century style Parker table? The durable and sleek Strut table? Or the smooth Aqua Virgo table?!

You’ll have to stay tuned to find out!

image 1 via Line Klein // 2 via // 3 via Genbyg Design // 4 via ATWTP

The Houseplant Is Back {And Yes, You can Keep it Alive}

Decor

The plant is back in the building {woot!} and we’re loving the extra life and greenery it brings to a space. Any greenery really opens the environment up and makes it feel more livable- makes sense, technically there are more living things in the room now! After I jumped on the Fiddle Leaf bandwagon, I’ve been wanting to add a new plant or two to the loft.

Thankfully, I’ve had pretty good luck in the houseplant department thus far {miracle!} and am happy to report, I haven’t had to bury too many green friends in the plant cemetery. Don’t be fooled, by no means am I a green thumb, but sites like my new favorite, The Sill, certainly help me feel more like an expert. They break down the care of the most popular houseplants {they even break down plants by personalities so that you can find the perfect plant for your lifestyle!} and are my go-to reference for the current or future plant lover.

In order to steer clear of the black thumb club, I make sure I’ve aced my one on one time with the employee at the gardening store before I even dare bring a plant home with me. There is something so depressing about watching the leaves on your plant turn yellow and then a whithered brown and feeling like you have no control over nursing it back to health. Isn’t it the worst feeling, ever?

We’re currently reading up on the care guides of these guys {The Sill offers PDF’s that you can download here!} because we want to bring some new life into the new office! Here’s a quick breakdown of our top picks:

I vote for something like the Snake Plant which is cool and graphic, but it might be a good idea to have low maintenance guys around like cacti since we’re always running around and are likely to forget to water them! Oops. One thing for sure is that you don’t already, you must buy a Pothos for your home. It’s our go-to plant {besides our trusty Fiddle Leaf Fig tree!} and according to the plant experts, you can take a sledge hammer to it and it won’t die. We’ll see about that…

image 1 via Ferm Living // 2 via Lotta Agaton // 3 via Daniella Witte // plant images via The Sill

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